Conferences

13th International Columbia School Conference on the Interaction of Linguistic Form and Meaning with Human Behavior

January 18-20, 2023 and online January 27, 2023
Columbia University, New York, NY

A huge thank you to our presenters and participants both in-person and online. If you have any questions about the 2023 conference or would like to learn more about CSLS, contact admin@csling.org.

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The XII Columbia School Linguistics Conference was held at Columbia University, February 14-16, 2015.

X Columbia School Linguistics Conference, Rutgers University with invited speakers Flora Klein-Andreu from Stony Brook University and Andrea Tyler from Georgetown University

IX Columbia School Conference co-sponsored by and held at the School of Education of The City College of New York, with invited speakers Elizabeth C. Traugott of Stanford University, and Yishai Tobin of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

VIII Columbia School Conference, held in 2004 at The City College of New York, with invited speaker Betty Birner of Northern Illinois University. Co-sponsored by the School of Education at CCNY, this conference featured a special session on linguistics in education.

VII Columbia School Conference, held in 2002 at Columbia University and co-sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages, with invited speakers Melissa Bowerman, Joan Bybee, and Alan Huffman. The Fifth and Sixth Conferences were held at Rutgers University in 1997 and 1999, respectively.
    
Earlier conferences were held at Columbia University (1989), the University of Virginia (1991), and Rutgers University (1993, 1995).

Institutes

There have been nine Institutes for the Study of Form, Meaning, and Human Behavior in Language. The Ninth Institute was held January 9-12, 2017 at Columbia University. Click below for more information.

The Ninth Institute was held January 9-12, 2017 at Faculty House, on the campus of Columbia University. There were presentations from five faculty members on different aspects of Columbia School linguistics, which are outlined on the Ninth Institute Program here. Participants were 13 graduate students and faculty in linguistics from universities in the U.S. and Mexico, who were selected from a larger pool of applicants, and had prepared for the sessions by reading materials that were sent to them in advance. The 13 participants received scholarships to attend the Institute (air fare, hotel, and per diem) from the Columbia School Linguistic Society. The Society is grateful to its members, donors, and financial advisors for making the Institute possible.

The Eighth Institute was held November 14-18, 2016, at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina.

Member, planning committee, Seventh Institute for the Study of Form, Meaning, and Human Behavior in Language, New York City College of Technology (CUNY), sponsored by the Columbia School Linguistic Society.  (2014.)

The Society’s Sixth Institute was held June 11-14, 2012 at Copenhagen University (CU), organized by Tanya Karoli Christensen, member of the faculty at the LANCHART Center there.  The Institute provided the first opportunity for intense contact between CS and Danish functional linguistics and other lines of Danish scholarship. The Sixth Institute Program is available here. Joseph Davis and Wallis Reid gave a guest lecture on “Foundational issues and points of contact between CS and Danish functionalism.”  Ricardo Otheguy gave a guest lecture on “The ideas of William Diver considered from a sociolinguistic perspective.”  Christensen gave a presentation titled “On category and variation.”  Otheguy and Nancy Stern gave a presentation on “The English Control System.”  Wallis Reid gave a guest lecture on “The place of polysemy within a sign-based framework.”  Davis and Stern conducted master classes with three graduate students.  Danish linguists and graduate students participating included: Marie Herget Christensen (CU), Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen (CU), Anne Fabricius (Roskilde Univ.), Lars Heltoft (Roskilde Univ.), FransGregersen (director, LANCHART), Peter Harder (CU), Lisbeth Falster Jakobsen (CU), Sune Sønderberg Mortensen (CU), Jeffrey Parrott (LANCHART), Kathrine Thisted Petersen (Aarhus Univ.), Nicolai Pharao (LANCHART), Jann Scheuer (CU), and Anne Lise Siversen (CU).  There was considerable time available for discussion of analytical and theoretical points, and the clear consensus was that the meetings were greatly beneficial all around.  (Not to forget the charms of the City of Copenhagen!)  Thanks to all who participated, especially to Tanya Christensen for organizing the events and for her hospitality.

The Fifth Institute was held January 18-21, 2010 at The City College of New York, organized jointly by Alan Huffman and Joseph Davis. Wallis Reid, Betsy Rodriguez-Bachiller, and Nancy Stern served as faculty. Participants worked in-depth with authentic texts on several grammatical systems of English.

The Fourth Institute, held June 26 to July 1, 2005, took the form of a writing retreat in the Poconos of Pennsylvania, with free time for writing and informal interaction as well as more formal seminar slots for each participant.

The Third Institute, held on June 17-27, 2002, again at City College, concentrated on linguistics in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. It included an intensive course on Linguistics and the Grammar of English, co-taught by Alan Huffman and Joseph Davis, as well as seminars on relevant topics by: Charlene Crupi, Richard Epstein, Wendy Gavis, Ricardo Otheguy, and Nancy Stern. This institute was co-sponsored by the City College School of Education.

The Second Institute was held in June and July 1998 at Kean University. It featured courses on: Introduction to Columbia School Linguistics, by Joseph Davis; Historical Linguistics, by Alan Huffman; and Applied Linguistics, by Betsy Rodriguez-Bachiller. There were also presentations and seminars on a variety of topics by: Ellen Contini-Morava, Barbara Goldberg, Robert Kirsner, Ricardo Otheguy, Wallis Reid, Nancy Stern, and Yishai Tobin.

The first, in June 1996, was held at the City College of New York. Its activities included three standing seminars: one on the Foundations of Linguistics and the Grammar of English, led by Alan Huffman; another on Phonology, led by Joseph Davis; and one on Columbia School as Radical Functionalism, led by Ricardo Otheguy. There were also daily seminars on ongoing research projects. The Institute was supported in part by a generous grant from the estate of William Diver, obtained from his heirs and facilitated by the executors of his academic estate.